Spatial analysis of an East Tennessee plantation houselot

Houselot patterning studies have become important in historical archaeology. Usually these studies involve an artifact distributional analysis of plowed contexts, or a labor intensive program of surface collection and small unit excavations over often what are large areas. The research in this thesis has focused on some alternative field methods that were tested on an unplowed plantation houselot in East Tennessee. In an effort to discern houselot use patterns including activity areas, and how these patterns changed over time, a program of bucket auger sampling was instituted that would provide coordinate and artifactual data suitable for creating frequency distribution maps. Not only is the field method easy to apply, but it is also maintained that data derived in this manner are comparable to data derived from more intensive field methods.